by Jess Dee
He stopped when his head was poised above her breasts. For the longest time, he simply stared, unable to move. Again, he was struck by the perfection of her breasts. They were firm and plump with dusky-pink nipples that strained beneath his gaze. He tried to formulate a sentence but couldn’t put the words together. Instead, a strangled noise escaped his throat as he dragged air into his lungs. If she only knew what he wanted to do to her breasts.
Before he could draw in another breath, she arched her back and thrust her chest upward. He rewarded her by cupping his hands around her plump flesh, leaving the nipples exposed. The vision of rosy buds peeping through his fingers was too good to resist, so he covered one puckered bud with his lips and rolled it around in his mouth, relishing the taste and the feel.
Amy’s moan caught Daniel in his stomach. It tore through his gut and shot straight to his cock, leaving it ramrod straight.
He took her other nipple in his mouth and subjected it to the same treatment. This time, he bit her when she moaned.
She yelped and wound her hands tightly through his hair.
“Did I hurt you?”
“Yes.” His scalp stung when she pulled his hair, but it was nothing compared to the pain in his balls when she groaned, “Do it again.”
Her nipples were even harder, and he nicked one with his teeth and then immediately soothed it with his tongue. She writhed beneath his ministrations, so he suckled hard on the other one, showing no mercy when she winced and cried, “Don’t stop.”
Stop? He was just getting started.
By the time Daniel lifted his head, he knew every inch of her breasts intimately. He knew what made her nipples bead and her breasts swell. He knew where to touch her to hear her groan and how to nip her so she screamed. And he also knew if he didn’t stop then and there, he’d lose control completely. As it was, he teetered on the brink. If he licked her tits one more time or watched her writhe for another second, he’d climax without even fucking her.
Her hair was a tousled mess, her cheeks tinged pink. Green eyes were glazed with passion, and her mouth puffed out tiny bursts of air. Christ, she was made for sex. Even her eyelashes turned him on. Long, thick, and dark, they swept low over her eyes, enhancing the desire he saw there. Who could forget those lips? Those luscious, red lips, full and swollen from his kisses. They played havoc with his willpower. All he could think about was how they would feel wrapped around his cock. How they had felt, all warm, wet, and hungry, when she’d gone down on him.
Five seconds. That’s how long he’d last if she blew him now.
So he kissed her instead. He took her lips and proceeded to shake the foundations of his world with the intensity of his need. The velvety depths of her mouth left him mindless, the satiny heat of her tongue dazed him, and when at last he released her, she was a quivering mass beneath him.
He was incapable of reason. Instinct led him on.
He lowered his hand to her belly and with a feathery touch skimmed it over her navel and the soft curve of her stomach until it rested on her mound. A light flick of his thumb over her clit and she was gasping, pushing hard against his hand. God, she was so responsive, so wet. His chest shuddered with wanting her. He kissed her again while he moved his thumb slowly, languidly, and dipped a finger into her moist heat.
Amy twisted and jerked beneath him.
Daniel released her mouth and cursed. If she so much as moaned, he’d lose it. In one fluid movement, he shifted down the mattress and replaced his thumb with his tongue.
She smelled of sex—musky and spicy. He fastened his mouth over her slit and kissed her, tasting himself on her lips. He couldn’t get enough. Tasting her—smelling her—was a heady aphrodisiac.
When she called his name, it came out as a long, low moan of pleasure. He feared he might burst a blood vessel trying to restrain himself.
He danced his tongue around her, swirling and tasting, until she thrashed on the bed, groaning unintelligibly. With a growing sense of satisfaction, he felt the tension build up in her. Several times, she lifted her hips to meet his mouth. He increased the pressure and speed of his tongue until she stiffened suddenly, threw her head back, and crumpled beneath him. Her orgasm was hard and long, and he kept his mouth fastened to her pussy, lapping up her nectar as the spasms gradually lessened to light shudders and her breathing slowly returned to normal.
When at last she fell limp against the bed, he began his assault all over again. She bucked against his tongue and shook against his mouth. Her clit grew more engorged with every lick. She sobbed his name, and within minutes, he sensed her building up to another orgasm.
This time he wasn’t so generous. He withdrew his tongue and pulled away from her only long enough to meld his mouth to hers. He lay along the length of her and spread her legs farther apart with his knee. The head of his cock touched the wet heat between her thighs and he almost came undone. Desire spiked through him, hot and fierce. He nudged his cock between her lips and she opened her thighs to welcome him in. Instead of plunging in like his need demanded he do, he held back.
Self-discipline was torturous.
With a will of iron, he pressed against her. Promising but not delivering, tormenting them both.
She whipped her head from side to side.
He pushed into her halfway and then stopped and waited.
“Look at me,” he whispered hoarsely. “I want to fuck you so bad, I’m losing control.” He shook. He was out of his mind, and he wanted her to see it, to understand the effect she had on him.
She opened her eyes and stared at him. Even in her lust-crazed state, he could see she understood his words. Her pupils were deep pools of passion. “Do it,” she urged. “Fuck me.” With a neat shift of her butt, he found himself buried deep inside her.
Holy mother of— Where in God’s name did she learn that?
He shuddered and gritted his teeth. One more move like that and he’d be history. He closed his eyes and counted to ten, then twenty. At twenty-three, she repositioned herself and he slid in deeper. Her muscles clenched around him.
There was nowhere on earth he’d rather be than where he was right now. When her muscles relaxed around him, he pulled out slowly and glided back in. Moans filled his ears, but he wasn’t sure whether they were his or hers. He didn’t care. Another thrust and he was moving in her, burying himself deep inside her welcoming warmth. Over and over as tension continued to build. Her eyes developed a glassy sheen. Sensation had taken over. She no longer saw him. Her breathing was shallow, punctuated by short, sharp gasps.
Damn, she was hot. Hot and sexy, his wet dream every night for months now. Only this time he was awake and she was real. He wasn’t dreaming about fucking her—he was making love to his dream girl.
Slow, restricted movements became impossible. He increased the tempo, driving into her as she raised her hips to meet his every thrust, groaning out loud as her moans floated on wisps of air. She was wet, tight, and so hot he couldn’t get enough. Harder and harder he moved, slamming into her.
When her muscles clamped down around him and she bucked, screaming her satisfaction, he stopped fighting the inevitable. He gave himself up to the force stampeding through him and exploded.
Chapter Eleven
“So that explains the little glint in your eye.”
Amy repressed a smile and went to stand by her office window. “Don’t say, ‘I told you so.’”
“I told you so. God, I love it when I’m right.”
She permitted Maggie her two-minute victory gloat. The woman had been right all along. The last ten days were proof of that.
“You should have listened to me from the start.” Maggie launched into a gleeful lecture about how right she was. “It would’ve saved you both a lot of time. I can’t believe it took you seventeen years to come to your senses.”
Amy bit her lip and stared outside. “It’s more a matter of taking a few months to lose my mind.”
Maggie sighed disbelievingly. “You
still think you made a mistake?”
She shrugged and turned to look at her friend. “I’m not sure. It’s not as if I had much of a choice. There was so much chemistry between us, it was a matter of time before one of us succumbed.”
“Succumbed?” Maggie grinned. “From the sounds of it, you seduced an innocent man.”
Bemused, she shook her head. Sure, she’d been the one to strip, walk over, and offer him her body, all unwrapped with the bow removed. But she hadn’t seduced him. Nope, if truth be known, he’d been seducing her for months. Teasing and testing, titillating and tantalizing her until she’d finally come unglued—or, in this instance, undressed. By the time she wrung his little secret out of him, there was absolutely no doubt in her mind she would sleep with him.
“You know…I thought I had. But the more I go it over in my head, the more I’m convinced he seduced me.”
Maggie clapped her hands together gleefully. “He played you, didn’t he?”
“Like a fine-tuned instrument.”
“Did he at least strike the right notes?”
She gave her friend a gratified grin. “He had an entire symphony going there.”
Maggie studied her with a knowing look. “I do believe you’re in love.”
Amy’s world stood still.
Her hands began to shake, and her stomach lurched. She sat down and rested her head in her hands. In love? With Daniel? Impossible. Of course she loved him—like a friend. A friend with very delicious benefits. But she wasn’t in love with him.
Was she?
Holy crap.
Shit. Shit, shit, shit!
She was in love with him. Fully, wholeheartedly, completely, and totally in love with him.
She’d never have slept with him if she wasn’t. It was one thing to risk their friendship by making love. It was another to flush it down the toilet. That’s exactly what she would have done if she’d fucked him on a whim. No, sleeping with him had not been an impulsive move. It had been an ultimate expression of her feelings. From loving him in a purely platonic manner a few short months ago, she now loved him in a very physical and intimate way.
Astonished, she nodded. “I do believe you’re right.”
“Have you told him?”
“Christ, no.”
“Why not?”
She didn’t answer.
Maggie frowned. “This should be a happy time, a silly, goofy, stars-in-your-eyes time. Instead, you look as though you’re being tortured. Why the trepidation?”
Amy bit her lip. She felt tortured, plagued with doubt. There were so many misgivings about her shifting relationship with Daniel, she could write a thesis on trepidation.
“Same old, same old. Daniel’s not in this for the long haul.” Her anxiety at his inevitable departure ate away at her. While part of her celebrated their newfound sexual relationship, another, more practical part wished it had never happened. “I’m scared if I tell him how I feel, he’ll bolt.”
Maggie narrowed her eyes but didn’t say anything.
Amy sighed dejectedly, squeezing her lids shut against the inquisitive stare of her friend. “Besides, voicing my feelings to him would make it too real, make me too vulnerable. If I expose my deepest emotions to him, it’ll hurt more when he leaves me.”
“You already love him. Telling him isn’t going to change that or make you love him any less. If he leaves, it’s going to hurt, any way you look at it. But what if he loves you, too? What if he plans to hang around? You’re jumping the gun, assuming he’ll take off if he knows how you really feel.”
Amy chewed on the inside of her cheek, her emotions so conflicted she couldn’t deal with them. “I’m terrified, Mags.”
“Of a man you’ve known since you were a kid?”
“Of the intensity of my feelings for him.” The intensity seemed to grow by the minute. It made sense she’d fallen in love. Emotions this big, this deep, could be nothing other than love.
“Trust Daniel to do right by you.”
“I want to. But it’s all getting messed up in my mind. The harder I fall for him, the more I fear I’ll lose him. He’s everything to me. My friend, my lover, my support, my rock. If things don’t work out, and we call off this whole friends-with-benefits thing, I don’t have any guarantees. What if he wants to call off the friends thing, too?”
“You can’t live your life based on what-ifs.”
“I have to consider the what-ifs. I’ve lived my life based on noes for so long. No more relationships, no more men, no more intimacy. Now Daniel’s barreling through my defenses and changing all my noes to yeses.” The impenetrable wall she’d erected around her heart was crumbling, brick by brick. “It’s hard to adjust. Daniel’s not just a friend anymore. The turmoil’s doing my head in. I want to believe he and I can do this, and we can weather the friends-with-benefits storm, or maybe even make it as a couple in the long run. But a lifetime of experience has taught me differently. So it doesn’t matter how much I want us to work out, I can’t perceive of a way we will.”
“How about you stop worrying about what might be and start enjoying what is? Focus on the here and now.”
Amy smiled. That was the easy part. “The here and now is good.”
Maggie returned her smile. “And by the look of satisfaction on your face, the sex is good, too.”
“Better than good.” The sex was incredible. With Daniel, the most mundane actions became incredible sexual experiences.
With Daniel, she turned into a fiery sex kitten, a woman with a voracious appetite for making love. Daniel’s hunger was as insatiable as hers. No opportunity was frowned upon or overlooked. When they could make love, they did. Frequently.
Take last night, for instance. They’d been sitting companionably in his lounge, she doing a crossword, he reading, when she’d accidentally dropped her pen and had to crouch down on the floor to pull it out from under her chair.
“Don’t move an inch,” Daniel had rasped.
On her hands and knees, her butt stuck in the air, she’d looked over her shoulder and been blinded by the raw desire playing across his face.
“Not an inch.”
She’d watched, powerless to move while he’d unbuttoned his jeans, her breath coming in short, sharp gasps as he’d shucked his pants and knelt behind her.
Right there on the floor, he’d lifted her skirt, shoved her panties aside, and fucked her from behind. She’d taken every last pulsing inch of him, crying out his name until she’d finally collapsed under him, her body and his a writhing mass of post-orgasmic bliss.
“Take that goodness, Ame,” Maggie said. “Take the friendship and the fantastic sex and enjoy them. Use them as the basis for any relationship to come. Forget about the what-ifs and the fears and uncertainties.”
“I thought I was the counselor here, not you.”
“Maybe so, but I’m the nurse, and I know when someone needs a good dose of common sense. Have faith in Daniel. Have faith in both of you. You have half a lifetime of trust invested in him already. He’s a safe bet.”
Amy wanted to throw caution to the wind and do as Maggie advised. Up until now, Daniel had been the safest, most trustworthy person she knew. There was no reason to think that might change.
No reason except a lifetime of experience that had taught her intimate relationships didn’t last. Why would this one would be any different?
…
“Hi.” He lounged in her doorway, eyeing her hungrily. A huge grin was plastered across his face.
“Hi yourself.” She stared up at him, unable to get enough.
“You ready to leave?”
“In a minute.” Her voice was a breathy invitation.
“In a minute,” he agreed. In one lithe movement, he swept down and devoured her mouth.
“Mmm…” Her heart thudded. She wound her arms around his neck, arching into him.
He kicked the door shut and drew her close. She sighed into his mouth as his tongue plundered hers. Her body
reverberated in pleasure.
“Sorry I’m late.” Daniel trailed warm, moist kisses down her neck.
“S’okay.” She threw her head back to allow him easier access to the sensitive spot beneath her ear.
“If we leave now, we can make a nine o’clock show.” He nibbled the edge of her earlobe.
“What should we see?” She sneaked her hands under his shirt and kneaded the velvety flesh of his stomach, relishing the hard muscle below.
“The new Marvel movie started yesterday.” His fingers made short work of her buttons, undoing her top and pushing it open. He inhaled deeply as he gazed at her breasts, his lower lip caught between his teeth.
Her nipples strained against her bra, pebbling into tight buds. She shuddered as his mouth closed over one. “I hear it’s…very good. Oh.” The sensation of his hot, wet tongue over the lacy lingerie sent her body temperature soaring.
“The reviews have been okay.” He turned his attention to the other breast, laving the flesh buried beneath the lace.
She gasped. “Where’s it showing?” The zip on his jeans caught as she tugged on it with shaking hands. Forcing herself to slow down, she eased the metal over his straining erection and pushed the flaps aside. She covered him with her hand.
“At the, ah…cinemas.” He pulsated under her fingers.
“I know.” She nipped his shoulder and then licked away the sting, enjoying the taste of his salty skin. “Which one?”
Her shirt lay beside his on the floor and her bra followed seconds later. She dipped her hand beneath the elastic of his boxer shorts and wrapped her fingers around him.
He jerked into her. “Uh…the one where they…oh man…show films.” His voice was rough and his breathing ragged.
“We should probably go soon.” She knelt before him and pushed his pants down his legs.
“Yeah. We don’t want to…” He cursed, his voice thick. “We…don’t want to…”
The soft wool of the carpet cushioned her knees and the cool air teased her bare breasts. “We don’t want to what?” She licked her way up his shaft.